Vicissitudes

This last weekend I drove over 900 miles. This covered almost all of the highways in Alaska, including the Glenn Highway, the Parks Highway, the Richardson Highway and the Seward Highway. Circumstances bringing me to Fairbanks were not ideal, but it was an occasion of family togetherness, fellowship and reflection. I saw family friends I hadn't seen in many, many years. This felt really good, and I really enjoyed spending time with my own family up North. This was the first time I remember all of us being together up there since I was a kid.

This time of the year, the sun is up 24 hours a day in that part of Alaska. The sky gets a little pink and orange, but doesn't seem to truly set before it starts getting light again. It's pretty neat to be driving at 1:30am in broad daylight. I saw five moose (plus one calf) over the course of the weekend, and about twenty rabbits alongside one section of the road. One of the moose was running at full clip alongside the road just behind a row of trees.

By chance, I ran into an old friend of mine, Jacob, at a gas station along the highway. He was driving up from Valdez to Wasilla with his girlfriend to do some mountain biking, and to visit his brother. Both of us happening to be on the road traveling, we spent some time remembering (and laughing) about a time we were driving in his Geo along the Richardson Highway, hydroplaned, and did over a 360 spinning off the road near Paxson Lodge, blowing a tire and missing a collision with a large sign by mere feet that could have dramatically changed our lives for the worse. Jeez, we were lucky back then in so many ways.

My friend Doug and I kayaked down Portage Creek again on Sunday. The water volume was higher than the previous week which made it a little more fun. Kite-boarders and wind surfers were out on Turnagain arm riding the waves.

The Subaru held up well -- a notable accomplishment after $3,000 in recent surgical repairs - struts, brakes, (devilish) electrical work, engine hoisted out, blah, blah blah. Odometer is now at 135k and I expect it will still be carrying kayaks, bikes, cargo boxes, people and gear around Alaska and Canada for at least another 70k miles.